Video sharing and Kyrgyzstan
February 15th: On this day in 2005, a new website was launched which was to quickly establish itself as a major phenomenon on the internet – a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos: You Tube.
Actually, the domain name was registered the day before the launch; the first video, (a 19 second clip called “Me at the zoo”, by one of the three founders, Jawed Karim) was uploaded at 8:27pm on April 23rd, (incidentally, it is still available here, (or below), and has already been viewed over 4 million times … there is also a post that claims to be a compilation of the first twenty videos posted here); from May a “Beta Test” version of the site was available; the official launch took place in November and buy July the next year there were already 65,000 new videos being uploaded every day(!) – they actually say that 35 hours of new videos are uploaded to the site every minute(!), and something like two billion (!) videos are watched every day, so it’s no wonder that in 2007, You Tube was using as much bandwidth as the whole of the internet used in 2000.
Despite the phenomenal success this demonstrates, the site has not been without controversy. The very name was the subject of a court case as there already was a site with the registered domain www.utube.com. Then again there has been criticism that You Tube does not screen the content uploaded by users … either the videos themselves or the comments. There have been complaints about copyright infringements, material likely to cause offence to particular groups or national sensibilities, incite religious or racial hatred, homophobia, expresses “holocaust denial” … and a host of other issues. Some of the material has caused the site to be blocked by countries such as China, Iran, Libya, Morocco Pakistan, Thailand and Turkey. Some schools have blocked the access site because there is no control over what material might be accessed by students and even You Tube, themselves, now block access to some material on a regional basis.
Of course, it wasn’t cheap to set the system up. They had venture capital of something like USD11.5 million, but it was worth it because in November 2006 it was sold to Google for a reported USD1.6 billion. Now that’s a rate of return on investment!
You Tube is just one of a range of sites that have demonstrated such phenomenal success. Others include My Space, Facebook, and Twitter. One of my particular favourites was www.milliondollarhomepage. The idea was to create a page with one million pixels and then “sell each” pixel for a dollar – there was a minimum purchase of 100 pixels. Having paid for the pixels, the tenant can then submit an image which will be uploaded, along with a suitable link to their own site if they wish. A simple idea … but worth “a million”.
Anyone who has a good idea needs to be careful to protect their interest. They say that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, and You Tube certainly has its “imitators” people who have taken the idea and adapted it in one form or another.
Here, for example, there are several sites which allow users to upload videos in much the same way as the original You Tube. They tend to be heavily laden with clips of local interest – for example political or social comment. Also, on the internet there are several specialist sites which make available clips on a particular theme, for example “travel”.
One of the features of You Tube is that each video can be accessed from distant sites – each video has an “embed code” which can be pasted into another page, just as I have done. Whereas I do it occasionally, some sites take advantage of this facility to offer a variety of video clips from the original site, sorted and grouped into categories.
Here are just a few such video sharing sites either based in Kyrgyzstan or with content about Kyrgyzstan. Some of them are in Russian … or Kyrgyz, but still worth a visit:
General Video Sharing sites:
YouTube – Kyrgyzstan
The classic You Tude … with user submissions tagged with Kyrgyzstan
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Kyrgyzstan&search=tag
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Indiaforumstv – Issyk Kul page
There’s no information about who they are but the site seems to host a collection of You Tube clips … This is a collection of those with the Issyk Kul tag
http://video.indiaforumstv.net/Issy-Kul/
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Kyrgyzstan !on Openviv
A video sharing site – with a with user submissions on a wide variety of topics including short “professional” films
http://openviv.com/show/Kyrgyzstan/page-1
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Search videos for ‘Kyrgyzstan’ on Vimeo
A video sharing site – with a with user submissions on a wide variety of topics including short “professional” films
http://vimeo.com/videos/search:kyrgyzstan/46ec948f
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Local Video Sharing Sites
Blive.kg
A local video sharing site – like You Tube … in Russian
http://www.blive.kg/
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Bulbul.kg
A local video sharing site established by a news agency based in Bishkek – like You Tube … in Russian
http://www.bulbul.kg/
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Namba.kg
A local video sharing site – like You Tube … in Russian
http://video.namba.kg/
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Obs.kg
A local video sharing site – like You Tube … in Russian
http://www.obs.kg/
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Smotri.kg
A local video sharing site – like You Tube … in Russian
http://smotri.kg/
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Travel Related sites:
CheckMyCity.com – Kyrgyzstan Page
My city travel community and video guide … is about promoting various countries around the globe. Our members can upload their videos, write blogs, connect and interact with other members all over the world, upload their interesting pictures, write about events, restaurants, attractions, museums in their communities, make hotel reservations and bookings, check and get the best hotel deals from a list of 78,000 hotels worldwide and much more. This web page is unique by its’ concept and presents a perfect travel guide.
- Issyk-Kul Kyrgyzstan
- Bishkek Kyrgyzstan
http://checkmycity.com/video-travel-guide/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/122
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LivingScoop – Get an Eyeful of the World
A video sharing site that claims to have “unlimited free speech and freedom of all expressions” … here are some of the user submissions tagged “Kyrgyzstan”
- Karakol snowboard and ski jumping day – LivingScoop
- Extreme swimming in winter Issik-Kul – LivingScoop
http://www.livingscoop.com/index.php
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Travelistic- Search Results for ‘Kyrgyzstan’
A Travel related site offering a number of videos submitted by users … Here are a few tagged “Kyrgyzstan”
- An Adventure to Lake Issyk-Cold
- Taste Testing Shoro
- Rocking Out in a Bomb Shelter
http://www.travelistic.com/search/search?search_terms=Kyrgyzstan&commit=Search
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Travel Ideas by Travercial
A site showing travel related videos submitted by users … here are two specifically about Kyrgyzstan:
- Kyrgyzstan: On the Road
- Kyrgyzstan: Back Country Snowboarding
http://www.travercial.com/
Travelpod videos – Kyrgyzstan page
A travel site where users can upload blogs as well as video … here’s the search page returing those user submitted videos tagged “Kyrgyzstan”
http://www.travelpod.com/videos-mp3s/0/Kyrgyzstan.html
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Bishkek